Norway fell 1-4 to France in Foxboro outside Boston late Friday night and finished second in the group.
"We are at the World Cup to go far. I would have done the same thing every day of the week," he tells NTB.
"I understand that the fans wanted to see Erling, Martin (Ødegaard) and the others, and I may feel a little guilty about that. But we have already given the fans a couple of wins and that means they will see more games with us."
Solbakken says Norway had the shortest time between matches against Senegal, France and the round of 16. There, Ivory Coast, who finished their group a day before Norway, awaits on Tuesday evening in Dallas.
"We face a good Ivory Coast, one of the physically strongest teams in the World Cup. Like against Senegal (Norway's 3-2 win), I rate it as a 50-50 match, so we need to be really good. They have one more day of rest, but by rotating we have evened out that situation," says Solbakken.
